Middle class identifiers 2022

[Pullandpush]

I read a similar thread a few years ago & the main middle class markers were hummus, organic food, private education, boden, ski trips etc, farrow & ball..
Are these unchanged for 2022 or have the identifiers shifted?
Since the pandemic I've seen a rise in the "hipster" style MC especially the men, maybe the working from home has allowed them to relax into the unshaven, casual look which wasn't there a few years ago...
Private education seems to be on the wane but that may be due to the cost of living..
Any other main MC identifiers I missed?

I love these threads, I find them so fascinating. I think I sit somewhere between WC and MC. My DM was a privately educated daughter of WC parents, and met my VERY WC father, but was a single parent in the 80s so we were on benefits and were very poor when I was little.

I was academically very bright and was the first in my family to go to university - but I had no guidance, no idea about courses, or ways into work experience, and had zero support or advice - so I bumbled through 3 different courses before finally finishing my BA. The idea of social capital, inequality and the knowledge that some of my peers had got parents who could open doors for them hadn't sunk in and I didn't really understand why sometimes I felt uneasy and clueless about things that came so naturally to them. Added to that, I was interested in a working in a sector which is dominated by MC people (arts/galleries) and felt my northern accent really stuck out (in a bad way) in some of my interviews.

I now have some of the stereotypical MC things (wood floorboards, loads of plants, DC play piano, like a bit of Waitrose) but lots of WC elements to our life as well (according to this thread anyway!)

Oh god, no gel nails. And no long nails.

Only bare nails with a short, white tip (but natural white, definitely not a Frenchie)

Rubbish.

Guessing @Trafficjamlog buys spreadable butter 🙄

Teslas.

I live in an affluent middle-class area of Leicestershire and electric cars are now everywhere, most of them white Teslas.

Electric bike with a bin on the front for your 3 darlings

Do people really pay to have their nails filed?

I can totally relate... Being asked why I "talked posh" I'm nothing of the sort I also can't stand hummus 😂

Certainly do now the tubs are over £4.

Ukrainian family in your spare room...

ultimate MC brag this year.

Will be back to having cars but cycling everywhere instead by the autumn...

Cockapoos and Teslas are not middle class! I've only read the first page - going back for more now.

Agree with what you've said here @sunglassesonthetable

@DFOD wholly agree with you. My DH started as a bricklayer and now owns a very large and well known construction firm which has given us an amazing life. We now also have various other income streams.
All 3 of our children are in private school (youngest only in their nursery at the moment)
@AnnieSnap the success of the business gave us enough money to invest in other things so we are far from financially vulnerable and our children will also benefit from our wealth as adults as we will help with house purchases etc. It’s perhaps inconceivable to those not in the trades but some bricklayers & scaffolders are making £2000 + a week nett currently. This level of income allows people to buy second properties to rent, pay off mortgages and various other things to increase their financial security.

We are both from working class families.

@Tabitha005 I like your sense of humour. It's original MN.

Many that I know are very successful and are physically “off the tools” pretty quickly employing others as their businesses grow - so they are soon focused on quotation, planning , project management etc and are earning very well - supply and demand.

Anyone is susceptible to mental or physical health issues which may or may not impact their career.

Haven't read the full thread, but I think it is a downstairs WC/utility room.

Would add to this - gun dog (absolutely not crossed with a poodle) or an accidental farm cross (eg - lab/collie).

Some people say its to do with your profession that makes you mc. My profession is regarded as mc but I will always proudly regard myself as working class. Oh and I eat hummus!

Totally know the type, prominent here too... One in particular stands out, was very vocal about being anti private school then she had her own offspring & of course the state offerings weren't satisfactory for hers

The white ones are the cheapest option 😁

Does anyone remember the gently satirical blog Stuff White People Like from about ten years ago? This thread is a redux.

Sweaty Betty might be reassuringly expensive, but they're seriously naff

Lululemon if you must, but obscure yoga brand better, ancient Ronhills better still

It is certainly a complex but fun subject.

Traditionally in the UK you have royalty, aristocrats (had one in my private class at school), then the professionals so people like our family - lawyers, doctors, then under them those in trade including plenty of middle class jobs but which are not "professions" - this would also include very rich people who own factories who were "below" those in a profession. The professionals included your local vicar too. This professional class which is probably what I am in would have tended to mix with people in the same class in the old days and they tended to have degrees and further education unlike your working class made good factory owner where there is much there is brass coal mine mill owner man and unlike the aristocracy unless they had a gentleman's degree from Oxbridge (pass degree or third I think that was).

Hopefully whoever we all are we can get on with everyone.

Surely a lot of this is more about wealth than class. I mean most people would love to have real art of their walls, go skiing, spend lots of money on clothes from Toast etc etc etc. But most people do not have a 250k plus household income to facilitate that. So is it about class or money. Our family household income is 130k but we live in London so to be able to afford most of the things above - we'd need to earn double. Does that make use less mc? Or suddenly working class.

Last twenty (realistically thirty) years the US and UK has seen the biggest empoverichment of the middle classes. The UK is a low wage economy and this thread shows a mismatch between mc cash and wc attributes i.e. that if you are not in the top 1%-5% household income bracket then you just love loud, cheap and garish. Thats a false dichotomy. I can't afford skiing but that doesn't make me love Benidorm. I suspect a lot of people are like us. Theatre and nice foreign holidays abroad yes but who can afford a Tesla or an electric bike for 6k?

I don't know about trades and craftspeople being 'below' professionals. I think having a craft and practical skills (and the ability to market them) is pretty damn classy.